We Have Waited Long for the Master's Song~

Hello hello~

What a crazy week. Good thing I basically slept all last week and hibernated, since I needed it this week.

Monday started off well enough... until I was walking to school. I felt my shoe move a funny way, and about halfway to work it snapped. I had to go back and change it and was late to work...

It's only a flesh wound.

Okay why

Fortunately, since it was the first day back, I didn't have to teach. So I got to make like the last lessons I need for the year, and now I just have to coast til the end. I will get new coteachers (probably) so that was the hot topic this week.

Namho got a puppy and I can't deal with it.

I live for typos in my books.

Grades were due this week so I was helping So Jung with some last minute stuff, and came across this brilliant mispelling of "Monday"

I'm not sure if knowing "mayday" makes it better or worse.

Tuesday I had to teach some 6th graders who clearly have no interest in classes anymore, so we had to pep them up with a balloon game. We told them if they could keep the balloon up they didn't have to start class. One class lasted 10 minutes haha. Amazing. 

I got a haircut on Tuesday too!

Short and straight! (Just like me hahahaha....)

Wednesday was a daily we had been anticipating for a while. Back in September 2014, right after I got to Korea, Tina and I went to see Dracula. The Korean musical is wayyyyy better than the American one. It's not without problems, but it's pretty great.

Our seats were far but it was fine.

This time there were only 2 Draculas: XIA Junsu (a kpop idol from the group JYJ) and Park Eun Seok, who we had seen the first time when he was the understudy.

Kim Junsu (XIA Junsu)

Park Eun Seok

More on the show later.

Basically it was awesome. We went with Grace and Young Ah, and had a wonderful time. 

I love so much in this picture.

Poor Jonathan Harker. He gets totally screwed in this version. 

It was cool that I understood more this time. The staging was a little different too. But it was so much fun!


It finished pretty late (it's 2 and a half hours with a 20 minute intermission so it ended at like 11) so I was tired Thursday. Thankfully So Jung needed more time to grade so we watched Narnia with my 6th graders and I got to rest.

Thursday night my friend Helen invited me to dinner up in Hyehwa, which is like the happening area (Hongdae and Gangnam style) in the North. It's an hour or so trek for me, but Helen is awesome and knows awesome restaurants. Plus she's my friend and she had a bad day. so naturally I had to help.

This place was awesome. They have so many drinks and good food! Definitely have to go again.

Mint Juleps bring me back to my grad school days. I didn't drink them, we just talked about them a lot.

When I saw one drink, I HAD to get it.

The Wildflower

  This is why I had to get it.

It was so delicious. 

 The restaurant was dark but we used Helen's flashlight to make a spotlight:

Chili Mac & Cheese

Lasagna 

It was awesome. I skyped my parents, as usual, and stayed up way too late, also as usual. I need another break! Good thing we have a 5 day weekend next weekend~

Friday, we heard the call of Dracula again, and like Lucy and Mina we couldn't resist. 

But really Park Eun Seok's tickets were on sale buy one get one free, so it cost us less than it did to see Junsu but we had better seats.

How did I end up back here?

This time, I enjoyed the show even more. Junsu is great, but Eun Seok is more Dracula-ish. He't a lot taller and to me more compelling. 

We met Park Eun Seok after the show:

He is way more handsome in person. And so tall. And handsome, 

More on that later. So much more.

Saturday I had yet another wedding to go to, and this one was perhaps my favorite of the three. This time it was for the music teacher, Young Eun, who I love. She's really close to So Jung, and she lived in Japan for a while, and she always helps and tries to talk to me when So Jung isn't available. Plus she's funny and awesome. 

Young Eun has a lot of international fans, so there were Japanese, Chinese, and American friends there. People kept switching from English to Korean to Japanese (So Jung speaks all three!) and it was just really cool to be around.

Young Eun is the beautiful bride. The others are (from the left): Seul (she caught the bouquet!) Moon Jung (my Korean soulmate) So Jung (my coteacher please stay my coteacher) and Shinae (4th grade head teacher who managed to teach her kids a Les Mis musical for a talent show wow!) And I love them all a lot 

The wedding hall had a waterfall behind it. It was so beautiful!

 In a Korean wedding, friends and/or family of the bride and groom sing them songs. Young Eun's younger brother and her cousins did a song... and a dance!

It was really bizarre, but it was so much fun!

Skills.

 I got to throw flower petals for them too!

Happy Wedding~

Their pictures.

We took pictures, including Seul catching the bouquet, and then all headed to eat together. This buffet was the best and didn't run out of food and had so many desserts. It was awesome. The conversation kept switching languages and it was so fun! 

Young Eun made an appearance to make the rounds and everyone kept sneaking her food.

I snapped a quick pic of her hanbok because it was so pretty!

I met up with Helen again and my friend Cherie, since I was on the other side of Seoul again, and we did some shopping and had a good time. I went to Tina's to watch Madame Antoine and some Dracula videos, and then we went to bed.

Sunday was dance day, as usual. I really should be more careful when I ask for not girl groups.... This week we tackled our old friend, EXO. Their wildly popular song "Overdose" was our next challenge. 

I still have some trauma from doing "Growl" a million times, but I like the song a lot. We all quickly realized that we would never be good at this dance. We learn all of the parts... EXO always does it in parts. And while the song is cool, it doesn't have a ton of beats to match to the moves, which is really hard. The refrain was the easiest part, weirdly.

Here you can see me forget half of the dance but we all still kill it 

It was really fun! Hopefully there's a comeback soon so we can do some new songs! We don't have class next week due to the Lunar New Year, so no dance for me.

This week should be pretty easy since it's the end of the year. I hope it is!

If you want to stop now, that's all for this week. If you want to read an in-depth analysis of my feelings about Dracula, please continue.

So, Dracula. 

First, this:

I cannot think of this without laughing to the point of tears.

One of the love songs is called Whitby Bay and it's one of my favorite songs in the show. So since they're in love (Bae = before anyone else, for those who don't know... looking at you, mom and dad), Whitby Bae. And if you're in a Big Bang mood, Whitby Bae Bae. Haha I am so funny. 

Okay back to real Dracula stuff.

The American musical was not terribly well-received, and understandably so. It's really poorly written, plot-wise. Attempting to have Dracula be scary and terrifying and a lovesick romantic, it loses a lot of power. In trying to do both a horror story and a romantic story, it ends up really doing neither. The Korean one changed a lot of the lyrics and the flow of the story to make it more romantic and believable, but it juuuuuust falls a little flat for me. 

That being said, the music is just incredible. Catchy songs that stay with you are all over the musical, especially the Korean one. The stage rotates, which leads to a lot of cool motions, and the special effects are otherwise otherworldly. Dracula has some mist-powers, and it shows up a lot on the projections, or it shows him turning into bats and stuff. Amazing.

The first time this run we saw XIA Junsu:

Yum. 

Junsu's voice is really unique, so he does sound like he's not human sometimes. He gets a little shrieky and it's hard to understand him sometimes, but he plays Dracula as a wild and erratic power, which is interesting to watch. He's really committed to it and it's highly entertaining. 

This doesn't hurt....

While I love Junsu, it's not quite as believable with the red hair. He's in Victorian England. And sometimes for the staging he should be inconspicuous, which is largely impossible. By the end of the poorly-written storyline, the musical felt its length. I see Junsu as a whiny and impulsive Dracula, so it fits with his irrational decision to die at the end. 

Junsu's voice really did blow me away since he's an idol. There is one song that suits him 100% better than Eun Seok, and it's one of the best songs in the show for the staging and pace:

This one even has a translation!

 Park Eun Seok is everything. I wasn't sure about going again, but it was hard to remember what he was like last time. Then some press call videos came out, and I was done for.

So Dracula.

Eun Seok seems more like I'd imagine Dracula to be. Black hair. Reeeeeeeeeeally tall. Really deep, hypnotic voice. His movements and delivery were a lot more deliberate than Junsu's. So when trying to convince Mina to be with him, Junsu came off as a petulant prince (which he is in the musical) whining "why don't you love me yet?!?!?!" and Eun Seok came off as "I know you are mine I just have to slowly lead you to that conclusion as if you made the decision yourself, but really it's already decided that you can't resist me." He really acts through his fingers and toes. Not one movement is wasted.

This is the song that did me in. Once I saw the press call for "Life after Life," one of my favorites in the show, I was done. I had to go.

Skip to about 3:20 and and watch. It's so good. Hint: this is an instance where the red hair isn't great for Dracula... You can see all the cool things with how well thought-out the stage is

Here's Eun Seok in the seduction scene and also doing "It's over," which is the only song in which I prefer Junsu. Eun Seok's voice matches the others too well, so it sounds better musically but is less entertaining. If you don't know who's singing, it's hard to tell. Junsu's is more distinct but more raw.

And here's the one that blows Junsu way out of the water:

It's from the first time I saw Eun Seok perform. But it's one of my top played songs in itunes because I cannot get enough.

 

Junsu works because the entire story is unbelievable and he embodies that with his flaming red hair. Eun Seok works because he's so hypnotic and believable as Dracula. Up until the very end where the plot stretches too far, I totally fell for him. The musical didn't feel as long the second time. It's like he cast his spell on me too.

So amazing. Both were so amazing. It really was like seeing two different shows. Then energy is just that different. Both are awesome though. 

Good thing the show only runs for like one more week or I would be in trouble.

Here are a few more videos for comparison, and so when I revisit this when I'm 80 I'll remember how much I enjoyed Korean dudes wearing leather pants and being vampires.

Here's Eun Seok's "Fresh Blood," with the translation:

This show is a nightmare for tech. So much could go wrong. For instance, when we saw Eun Seok, he couldn't get the wig and prosthetic face stuff off in time, so he sang half of his "newly transformed Dracula" verse on the bed while Jonathan helps him get his stuff in order. 

During Junsu's "Fresh Blood" the stage malfunctioned. When one of the brides came out of her coffin, which is built into the stage, the door wouldn't close for like half the scene. 

Also in this song the Korean lyrics are way more about Dracula's obsession with Mina to play into the romantic story. In the American one he's all like "I'm gonna build an army and terrorize London" so it makes less sense when he's all focused on Mina. Good job, Korean version.

And here's both of them singing "Loving You Keeps Me Alive."

Eun Seok's version, from 2016

Junsu from 2014

So Tina and I were pretty hyped from the musical being amazing, but it wasn't done giving us gifts. We decided to stage door, which isn't done too much in Korea. We didn't do it with Junsu because it was a school day and also we were sure the fans would be crazy. We wanted to meet Eun Seok though, since he probably doesn't have a ton of foreign fans and we wanted it to be full circle from the last time we saw him.

We met Van Helsing first, and he signed a card to Tina. When she told him her name sounds like Christmas, that's how he signed it. Hilarious. 

As we were waiting, we began to doubt since it was taking so long. We met some Korean women who had similar doubts but we all began talking in a mix of Korean and English about musicals. They enjoy similar ones to us, and similar actors. Park Eun Tae, for instance, who we saw in Jekyll and Hyde and Jesus Christ Superstar, and Park Hyo Shin (see Wildlfower above or Tina's love of him should shine through too) among other things. They were surprised we could speak Korean (we reminded them that the whole musical was in Korean...) and we waited together. 

Finally Park Eun Seok appeared, wearing a mask and full of apologies that he couldn't stay long. Our rather forward friends managed to convince him not only to take off his mask, but to take pictures. They also drew ALL of his attention to us by telling him "YOU HAVE FOREIGN FANS." 

He looked slightly surprised and said "Hello!" and Tina told him in Korean that we saw him when he was an understudy. He still had his mask on at this point, but his eyes got impossibly wide and his hand flew to his mouth as he wondered out loud, "How can you speak Korean so well?" It was definitely a highlight of the night. We got many compliments on our Korean that day, but this was by far the best. 

He is hella tall. And handsome. 

It took us a bit to get a picture with him, since Tina's phone messed up and my phone had no space for pictures... So we had to redo it a few times. Thankfully our new friends got us covered. I was stoked because the first time he just stood between us, but the second time he actually put his arm around me.

I was very happy he didn't do manner hands:

Super Junior's Heechul showing a prime example of manner hands where they don't actually touch the person. It's a real thing here. Really.

Distinct lack of manner hands from my Whitby Bae Bae and my postcard set that has all the lyrics to the songs

I hand't said much to him in Korean, so when he finally ducked out for real I yelled "You're so handsome" in Korean and he turned to look back and I made flailing motions so I hope he knew it was me from my accent and general American forwardness. It really made the whole experience complete haha. 

I think that might influence a bit of my love of the musical, but I could forgive some of the plot with him. I'm going to pretend he hypnotized Mina with his powers and then realized he was tricking his love and couldn't live with himself rather than Mina really loving him (since Jonathan and Mina is one of my fave literary couples ever) and him just giving up. The Korean one does a better job blending the love and horror stories, but I think no one involved in any version of this musical has actually read Dracula. 

It was an awesome, awesome week because of the show. I have been listening to like nothing else. It made everything go so fast and it was wonderful. I wish people liked it more so I could have more people to talk to about it. 

If I think of more Dracula stuff I'll add it later, but mostly those are my thoughts and favorite songs. 

You can check out the American OST here, but some of the songs are different, omitted, or it doesn't have some of the Korean songs like "It's Over," but it gives you a good idea of it. 

Thanks for sticking with me! Love you all~

Vacation~^^

Woooo!

Since I was alone in school a lot, I used some of the different staircases.
Here are some weird sayings that they have on the stairs at my school:

Awesome phrases to know.

I do not think I have ever strung these words together. 

I'm not sure why they need to know these...

I also met Lauren's cat last week!

He loves me

He loves me not

I am on the last day of my vacation, but it's been pretty great so far. Not much in the way of actually, you know, doing things, but a lot of relaxing and fun. And in less than a month, I'll be vacationing in China!!!

Remember my dance performance last month? The studio released a video, so check it out!

Still so proud of my waygookin (foreigner) team <3

So camp actually went unbelievably well. We actually got 0 negative comments aside from "it should be 3 weeks since 2 weeks is too short" from the parents and "9AM is too early to start on vacation" from the kids (and me) so I think it's a win.

Tina was on vacation already, so she came over on Monday. I showed up at home to this:

We accidentally match.

Tina came in to help me teach my dance class, and the kids loved it! I wish I had taken a video of them all coming in, because it was amazing. They kept saying "there's 2 Cesca teachers" and looked like they had been struck by lightning.

Teaching the dance was really fun. I'm glad I had Tina there. But my kids are so adorable and mostly up for anything, so it was pretty great.


Here are the videos we took so you can see how adorable they are:

Okay the one in the red glasses in front prefers her English name, Viola, and it adorable and already knew the dance coming in. You can see that she knows more than we taught them. These are my third grade girls and they make me remember why I ever liked 3rd grade.

Next we have B class girls and boys:

4th and 5th grade girls

And the boys. The one in the green is the one who made chocolates with me, and he was really worried.  

But he is perhaps the favorite performer of them all. 

When I asked them to draw their favorite part of camp, many drew this:

Camp then went incredibly smoothly for the rest of the time. Cooking day was a bit of a mess, as it always is, but it was fun. The kids really loved it. We made cat/animal/??????? pizzas:

Young Shik is here during vacation since he's a contract teacher so he came to help.

Since I live alone and we never order ingredients correctly, I got to take home the leftovers so I made quesadillas and pizzas all week. 

Camp turned out pretty good this time. My 5th graders begged us to let them do camp as 6th graders, and many students wrote how excited they were that they got to learn other things (dance, cooking) while using English because they thought they would only be learning just English and they realized they can do so much more. Melts my heart a lot.

Other things:

Siri knows what's up

I got this for So Jung for her birthday and she loved it. She's like "I LOVE CATS. I LOVE MINT. I HAVE TO SHOW EVERYONE." My whole camp had a lot of cats in it, so it was really appropriate. 

On Saturday I got to go to another wedding. This time, I actually knew who was getting married! She actually lives in my building, and is one of the 5th grade teachers, and was my coteacher for camp both times when So Jung couldn't do it.

I actually got to participate this time (after being dragged around like a child on the subway and to the wedding by some of the older teachers...) and it was beautiful. Really different from American weddings. Like they pick who is going to receive the bouquet. And when you finish the ceremony you go eat then everyone leaves. No big reception or anything. 

But I really had a lot of fun. And Da Yeon looked amazing.

Isn't she a beautiful bride?

 We got to meet her beforehand and take pictures with her.

They take pictures in a few different dresses.

So pretty!

I have another wedding next weekend for another teacher I really like, so I'm looking forward to it. This wedding hall ran out of food though... So Jung is very worried that I have not had a normal wedding experience. Also she loves the idea of a "plus one" that you bring to a wedding. She thinks American weddings sound more fun. Korean weddings are about the families joining, and American ones seem more about the couple in general and especially the bride. 

After, since I was across town, I met up with my friend Helen for coffee and got some cupcakes before heading home.

On Sunday, like everyone ever was busy so dance class was only 3 people. Tina had her TOPIK (test of proficiency in Korean) and like everyone was on vacation in Japan or Vietnam or other exotic places. We ended up learning an old song by AOA.

The song? Like a Cat. 

Featuring one of the dudes who used to be on Abnormal Summit.

I found this totally fitting after my entire cat-based camp, so it was awesome. Also I love this song and I love AOA's dances. If you recall, we did a performance with AOA's "Heart Attack" over the summer, and their dances are cute and sexy and fun.

Since I don't do things halfway, I dressed up in all the cat things I own:

Cat ears. Cat earrings. Cat crop top. Cat socks. 

We also all had a chance to do the dance by ourselves, which was cool and nerve-wracking and fun!

Here's my solo:

I think I look like a cat.

And all together:

And how the dance is supposed to look:

It was really fun! After class we got Korean BBQ at an all you can eat place, then got bingsu. Yum!

This week Tina and I got all our stuff ready for China, and I basically hung out and relaxed and watched TV. We're watching The 100 on the CW, and it was really intense. Megan is watching it too, so it's been really nice to talk about it a lot. My dad has been telling me it's good but it was her recommendation that finally pushed mt to watch it (sorry dad, thanks Megan!) and enjoy. We're in contact a lot more, and it feels like home again.

perhaps my favorite exchange.

It's a bit... no... a lot intense. I've had some nightmares and anxiety stuff from it because it is just that intense. And season 3 just started! Yassssssss! It's nice to watch some American TV that isn't food network or MTV haha.

 Thursday I had plans with Helen again. This time we ventured down to Pangyo to go to the Hyundai Department Store and get some cupcakes!

This is in the subways station at Gangnam. It's Psy's "Gangnam Style."

Their cupcakes are glorious.

Here is how I summed up the experience on facebook:

We checked out the cupcakes, ate dinner, shopped a bit, and came back when we were hungry for cupcakes... Only to find them almost completely sold out! Thankfully I got my red velvet cupcakes or we woulda had a problem!

Like I guess it's good that I didn't get all the cupcakes... like red velvet, strawberry, vanilla with vanilla or chocolate frosting, chocolate with chocolate or vanilla frosting, and carrot cake... I would have eaten all of them myself. Instead I settled for just red velvet, as they only had that or carrot cake left when we got back. Now I know better. We thought they closed at 10 but they close at 8. Also thank god Koreans aren't as crazy about red velvet as I am. Phew.

But now I get delicious cupcakes!!

Also gonna sneak this back in here.... After my long emotional post about it last time, Namho and I are back together. He has a lot of personal stuff going on and some shit went down with his parents, but we talked about it and he realized he can't decide for me whether or not I want to be in the situation. So thanks for all the support during our slump, everyone. Please look kindly on us and cheer us on.

Friday I again slept in (I am so screwed for school tomorrow) and was lazy all day before Tina came over. Then I was just lazy with her. We ventured out into the cold and got dinner before retreating into my apartment for the day to watch trashy TV and chill.

I also got to skype my friend Bryan, which is always awesome. It made me feel excited about my decision to probably go home in August. Also congrats on your engagement, Bryan!

Saturday was soooooooo cold so we lazed around until evening, when we ventured out into the tundra to try B'Muchos, a Mexican place really close to Tina. Lauren came all the way out from across Seoul to meet us. There was a 40 min wait but it was so worth it. We got some hot drinks at Ediya coffe first, then got some cold drinks and some awesome food at the restaurant. 

Coke and Lime, Blue Lemonade, and Grapefruit. All with Tequila of course!

I don't remember... Flautas? They were delicious

Enchiladas Verde

Quesadilla

It was amazing. So delicious. 

After, Tina and I froze our asses off in her apartment and watch a movie, then got ready for bed and the last day of our vacation.

On Sunday, we watched our current Kdrama obsession, Madame Antoine, which is about a psychologist and a fake fortune teller and they will inevitable fall in love. I like both the main actors in this one, so I'm pretty stoked. 

Bang Sung Joon was the villain in Hyde, Jekyll, Me and he play a hypnotherapist. This time he's a psychologist running an experiment to prove that true love doesn't exist. Han Ye Seul is a fortune teller who has the gimmick that she is visited by the spirit of Marie Antoinette (with already hilarious results as she speaks French in front of customers but the French clearly is for fanfare), and she loves love and believes that everyone wants to be loved. When they meet they don't like each other, but obviously that's going to change. It's really entertaining so far!

Bang Sung Joon and Han Ye Seul

Here's a quick trailer:

After, we headed out on another terribly cold day to go to dance class. 

No new comebacks have happened lately, so we're learning more older songs. This week, Hyuna's "Red."

We all dressed the part

I wasn't super stoked to learn this one, but since I like Hyuna and her other song (Because I'm the Best) was fun and I am a fan of Cube Ent (Beast's label) and I like dance class, I went.

Here's the dace as it should look:

It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!

I really loved it. The refrain was my favorite part. So fast and fun! The lyrics to the song are kind of weird, but that's why I like Kpop" I can enjoy the beat and the music without being turned off by the lyrics.

And here are our attempts:

Me and Katie kill this one haha. I think since we did so much together with iKON and EXO we move together a lot? Anyway, good job ladies.

With some encouraging words like "Put on your sexy mask" and "Be like Hyuna" we tried again

This is Tina's group along with our teacher. She makes it look so easy. And sexy.

All together now!

It was really fun. We got dinner together after since Shannon is going to be gone for a month. 

Now i'm just relaxing in my not quite freezing apartment and waiting to go back to school tomorrow. Sigh. I'm not even a little excited. These two weeks will be a joke, though. So. Whatever. Then it's a week of deskwarming then off to China! Yayyyyyyyyyy!

Until next week, stay safe and warm!